Frederick Foord Caiger

b.December 1860 d.5 September 1929
MD Lond DPH Cantab FRCP(1900)

Foord Caiger, the son of Frederick Henry Caiger, F.R.I.B.A., architect to the Metropolitan and City Police, was educated at Westminster School and studied medicine at St. Thomas’s Hospital. He qualified in 1882 and won the Mead medal in 1883. After holding several house appointments in the Hospital, he entered the service of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1887. His first posts were as assistant medical officer to the Northern and North-Western Fever Hospitals. In 1890 he became medical superintendent of the South-Western Fever Hospital, Stockwell, an office that he held for thirty-six years, interrupted only by two short breaks in which he organised the construction and opening of the Fountain and Grove Hospitals in 1893 and 1899 respectively. During his long tenure of office he lectured on infectious diseases to the students of St. Thomas’s, which institution in 1921 elected him as its emeritus physician, and for a shorter period at the Royal Army Medical College. After 1921 he also performed the duties of chief medical officer in the Infectious Hospitals Service. He was the first chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee set up by the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and in 1925 successfully urged the creation by the Board of a director of research and pathological services. The Fever Nurses Association owed its inception largely to his efforts. Caiger delivered the Bradshaw Lecture before the Royal College of Physicians in 1904 and wrote articles for Quain’s Dictionary, Allchin’s Manual and Allbutt’s and Rolleston’s System of Medicine. He was seen at his best in work of administration and organisation. At the same time he was a man of fine human qualities and won the co-operation and the affection of his subordinates. He was fond of golf, fly-fishing and travelling. Both before and after his retirement in 1926 he took a helpful interest in the Enham Village Centre for disabled ex-servicemen. He married in 1895 Madeline, daughter of Alexander Orr, an Australian landowner, and had one son. He died while on holiday in Scotland.